11 wins and still no playoffs is a possibility for Arizona Cardinals

There’s still a chance, still a hope, but the Cardinals could have their best regular-season record since relocating to Arizona and still miss out on the playoffs.

If they win their final two games, they will finish 11-5 — their highest victory total 1975 — and yet conceivably, could easily fail to secure one of the two wild-card spots in the NFC.

Not that coach Bruce Arians is looking that far ahead at such an improbable probability just yet. He had bigger concerns on Monday, a day after his team escaped with a 37-34 decision in overtime against the Tennessee Titans.

First, there is the availability of some of his top players to consider. Before the Cardinals (9-5) can even think about trying to find a way to snatch a win this coming Sunday at Seattle, they have to determine if they’ll even have the services of their starting quarterback, their star wide receiver, their leading running back, their No. 1 tight end and their new starting safety.

The good news is that Arians feels fairly certain Palmer and Ellington should be fine and he expects them both to play.

He isn’t nearly so confident about the others, however.

Fitzgerald, who has 34 catches for 329 yards and five touchdowns in his past five games, suffered a helmet-to-helmet hit while trying to field an onside kick late in regulation and was knocked out of the game.

“He passed whatever test he needed to pass to come out of the stadium,” Arians said, “but that’s still a long ways to go from being cleared.”

Fitzgerald’s status might not be determined until later in the week after he completes multiple baseline tests under the NFL’s mandated concussion protocol.

Arians can’t be sure how Johnson’s ankle will respond this week in practice, but the coach is clearly worried, saying: “I’m concerned we lost both our safeties in the last two weeks and we’re down to a rookie (Tony Jefferson). But it’s Week 15 or 16, whatever it is, and he’s not really a rookie anymore.

“Curtis Taylor hasn’t played any, so if he’s out there, I’d be a little worried because of the drop off from Tyrann (Mathieu) and Rashad — and Rashad had a great game.”

Housler missed Sunday’s game after suffering the groin injury in last week’s win over the Rams. He remains day-to-day, according to Arians.

But imagine if they didn’t have Palmer.

Two weeks after damaging his throwing elbow in a loss at Philadelphia, Palmer took a shot behind his left leg early in Sunday’s game by Titans defensive end Kamerion Wimbley. He twisted and fell to the ground awkwardly, spraining his ankle, and yet stayed in the game to help guide the Cardinals to their sixth win in seven games.

He was in a walking boot after the game, but again, Arians fully expects him to play this week. Palmer’s durability makes Arians feel fortunate.

“Oh, very fortunate, because he’s tough and a grinder,” the coach said. “He’s not going to come out of there. I was very concerned if he was going to be able to make the handoff on the touchdown run because he got clipped pretty good.

“He took a good shot and later, got it again, maybe five, six plays later. But he’s tough.”

Even if all of the injured players are able to give it a go this week, they might not be operating anywhere near 100 percent in Seattle.

And that’s not all.

Since the Seahawks still haven’t clinched the NFC West or the No. 1 playoff seed in the NFC, there’s no chance now that Seattle will rest any of its starters against the Cardinals.

That was a real possibility, though, until the 49ers postponed the Seahawks’ party by beating the Buccaneers. The Cardinals close out the regular season at home against San Francisco (10-4), which currently holds one of the two NFC wild-card spots, along with Carolina (10-4).

If the 49ers beat the 4-10 Falcons next Monday night, they could lose to the Cardinals in another week and still secure a playoff spot ahead of Arizona by virtue of having a better record within the division.

The Cardinals’ best hopes rest with trying to catch the Panthers, whom they beat 22-6 in Week 5. They can do it and clinch the No. 6 seed one of two ways, assuming the 49ers don’t lose to Atlanta.

One is by winning out to finish 11-5 and then having Carolina lose at least one of their final two games, at home against the Saints or on the road at the Falcons. The Cardinals and Panthers would finish with the same record, but Arizona would hold the first tiebreaker because of that Week 5 victory.

The second is by the Cardinals winning at least one of their final two games and having the Panthers lose both of theirs. Again, both teams would have identical records — 10-6 — but the Cardinals would own the tiebreaker.

With several NFC teams still able to finish at least 10-6, though, there could be a tie among three or more teams. That would require deeper tiebreakers to produce a playoff qualifier. So the playoffs are within reach, even if it seems like somewhat of a stretch. Not that Arians was really ready to talk about it. Not yet, anyway.

But what if the Cardinals do finish 11-5 and miss out on the postseason, becoming just the third team in history to suffer such a fate? It happened to the 1985 Broncos and the 2008 Patriots.

“It’ll be really weird,” Arians said. “It’ll be the first time for me. I’m used to winning the division at 11-5. But it’s (the NFC West) a great division and the NFC is playing extremely well this year so it’s just wait and see.”

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